The most common method and apparatus used in peeling fruit, particularly moisture bearing fruit having thin skins, such as tomatoes, provides for scalding the fruit and then applying caustic chemicals to remove the skin therefrom. Certain other types of apparatus, including U.S. Pat. No. 435,572 to Jesus Antonio Silvestrini have disclosed various mechanical techniques for gripping the fruit and stripping the skin or peel therefrom. However, these prior methods and apparatus have suffered from various disadvantages. The chemical type of peeling has necessitated the subsequent washing of the peeled pump to remove any remaining traces of chemicals, a process which may damage the pulp or remove otherwise edible portions thereof. Additionally, the juice resulting from the operation of these chemical type peeling devices has been unusable because of its contamination with the chemicals.
The previously known mechanical peelers from fruit of this type frequently have caused damage to the fruit and loss of usable pulp due to the mechanical gripping and squeezing arrangements. Certain of these prior art devices have also suffered from mechanical breakdown because of the complex and sometimes delicate moving parts necessary for satisfactory operation. Many types of the previously known mechanical peelers have also been suited only for peeling fruit of a predetermined size, a characteristic that requires an additional preliminary step of sorting by size and the provision of different machines for different sized fruit.